Saturday, September 01, 2007

No-HHitter

Double-H! A no-hitter! This was the first time I'd seen a Red Sox pitcher throw a no-hitter on TV (Lowe's: I was at Fenway(!); Nomo's: I was working overnights, so I slept through it--only would've had it on radio anyway; Young's lost no-no: may have caught it on radio, no real memory of whether I did or not), and holy crap was it hard to watch at the end. I can't even imagine being on the mound in that situation, with two outs in the ninth.

I kept seeing "Lowe (11-11)" at the bottom of the screen, and figured that was good luck. (I also remembered that his was a 10-0 win, so when we had men on in the eighth and an 8-0 lead, I rooted for two more runs, which we got.) Great job by Coco in the outfield, and more of a great job by Dustin--one of the best plays of the year, no-hitter or not. And Clay himself made that key stab of a grounder, too. What a night.

Of course, I was pissed at Lugo for messing up that double-play ball, immediately thinking of how he could be screwing Buchholz the way he did Schilling, making him get an extra out. But not even Lugo could ruin this night. The three guys I kept thinking about were Millar, Markakis, and Payton. I figured Millar would be rooting for us, so he'd give up an out to see the no-no. Markakis grew up a Sox fan, so he might be secretly rooting for the kid, but he's just so good, you should never bet against him. And Payton, I figured he wanted to break it up more than anyone, and he almost did. The fact that Markakis was scheduled to hit third in the ninth scared me, but Buch-61 got him.

Reactions:

Drinkwater: Arms up in air, three jumps, then the usual sprint for the exits, but not before running into the guy next to him.

Kapstein: Big smile, no clapping, just a little fist pump, much like CLay himself.

Werner and Henry: Jubilation, yet I wondered where the ever-present Lucchino was.

Theo: "Hell, yeah! Eat that, Cashman!!!!!!!!" He was as psyched as the regulation fans were.

And I loved how Beckett yelled out, fortunately toward a microphone, "Clay Buchholz, better than Curt Schilling," right to Curt.

Also, I remember from the Lowe no-hitter, I believe Rickey Henderson led off the game with his 100th career leadoff homer. Or 80th. And also, it was kids' opening day, so kids announced the batters, the whole game I think, not just for an inning like they do sometimes still.

What a great time last night. And even when I caught the game highlights on NESN this early morning, I was overcome with tears of happiness. Just a few, but hey, those were happy and indelible moments for all of us. Go Jon.

Who was the guy in the blue shirt sitting behind home plate? He had short, almost buzzcut hair, institutional glasses, and his arms were crossed and tucked tight up under his pits for almost the whole game.

Just fantastic. And great recap - I didn't notice the Lowe parallel. I sat in my living room here in the evil empire (well, Harlem anyway) and jumped for joy when Varitek squeezed strike 3. Any my wife, a lifelong Sox fan who never gets excited over the Sox (still dreading the other shoe, still after '04) jumped up and down with me. Something so cool about something so rare, especially for a 23 year old with no close friends - just doing his job. Awesome.

Can you say 7 games? Sox are taking the Jays to the woodshed tonight....